We have a chance to prevent passage of Fast Track bill

Labor unions have a very good reason to be worried about passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Since 1997, union members’ share of the workforce has dropped more than 20 percent. For private sector unions the share has almost dropped by one-third. If TPP gets passed many trade unions will be on life support in just a couple of years.

Among the nations included in this trade agreement is Vietnam, which pays their workers way less than we pay ours. Consequently, whatever little manufacturing is left in the United States will go to Vietnam with the expectation of profiting to the max.

Vietnam wouldn't be joining this trade agreement unless they felt they will win big. They outsmarted us once, and they are ready to do it again. And our greed-addicted corporate CEO's were already outsmarted by China. Vietnam is ready for the challenge.

Corporations in America hate labor unions. They believe that labor unions are an obstacle on their road to maximizing profits.

Labor unions are also the largest and most powerful of all the institutions fighting for economic and social justice. Weakening labor unions threatens our democracy. It exacerbates income inequality.

As we saw in Poland with solidarity, labor unions not only defend workers rights on the job and their economic well-being, but also defend a nation's right to follow a democratic path.

It behooves all of us to join the fight against the TPP. Not only is it a fight to protect labor rights, but it’s also a fight to protect our food supply, environment, health care, and even our national sovereignty.

Yes, Obama is supporting it. He was also in favor of getting rid of Gadhafi and of the bailout.

Today, Libya is fighting to prevent being overrun by ISIS, and the bailout was a major success, but just for 1 percent of the population.

We are living in an age of incomparable economic inequality that should remind us of the Great Depression. Most, if not all, progressive politicians and economists are against the TPP.

Please call your congressperson at 888-966-9836. Act as if your life depended on it. Because it probably does.

This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "We have a chance to prevent passage of Fast Track bill."